Iteratively coupled mixed and Galerkin finite element methods for poro-elasticity

We present a finite element formulation for coupled flow and geomechanics. We use mixed finite element spaces to approximate pressure and continuous Galerkin methods for displacements. In solving the coupled system, pressure and displacements can be solved either simultaneously in a fully coupled scheme or sequentially in a loosely coupled scheme. In this paper we formulate an iterative method where pressure and displacement solutions are staggered during a time step until a convergence tolerance is satisfied. A priori convergence results for the iterative coupling are also presented, along with a Summary of the convergence results for the fully coupled scheme. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.